“While it’s easy for mayors and council members to be blinded by the flow of easy money into town budgets, red light camera money truly is blood money,” Doherty said in a statement, referring to the increased crashes.

The improvements — which include the installation of a flashing notice of an upcoming red light — were planned long before the red light camera was installed, Dee said. The state just got the go-ahead to do the work, and it doesn’t make sense to continue the camera as part of the state’s red light camera pilot program once the improvements are made, he said.

“You don’t want to corrupt the data by having improvements made,” he said.

Removing the red light camera at Routes 22 and 122 is a unique situation and the state, overall, believes the cameras are safe, Dee said. The state’s November report shows a slight increase — 0.9 percent — in overall crashes but a 15 percent decrease in right-angle crashes, the most dangerous type, he said.

The biggest increase was in rear-end crashes, which don’t usually cause serious injuries, Dee said.

Pohatcong Township operates another red light camera at Routes 22 and 519, and the township overall has seen a decrease in crashes since the cameras went up, Mayor James Kern III said.

Kern said he’s heard other towns with red light cameras have seen increased crashes and that the township has supported several modifications to the cameras, including decreasing the fines for turning right on red.